World News Thread & Breaking News!!

[broadsword]

I was a little skeptical when the news broke and so waited for more developments. When you consider the major media's attempt to discredit China every way possible, without further confirmation, you have to give China the benefit of the doubt. Not that China would not go into that area if it considers its own, its the situation and timing.

 

[solarz]

I was a little skeptical when the news broke and so waited for more developments. When you consider the major media's attempt to discredit China every way possible, without further confirmation, you have to give China the benefit of the doubt. Not that China would not go into that area if it considers its own, its the situation and timing.

I tried searching for such a report in Chinese, but did not find anything.

 

[chuck731]

No one, And I mean no one Wants a repeat of the Munich games of 1972. security at Olympic and sporting events has been tightened ever since for good reason. the Terrorist will try, have no doubt.
but Putin would extract a lot of blood in retaliation for any events not on the events agenda.

Of course terrorist's agenda is get Putin to extract a lot of blood, that way the population in the separatist regions of Caucasus can be further radicalized, and thus providing the separatists with more terrorist recruits.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

zoom out on the map and its not a pretty picture Chechnya to the south, Turkey, Syria and Iraq farther down. the Ukraine to the north west. Sochi dead center.

30 January 2014 Last updated at 10:21 ET
Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych defiant amid turmoil
COMMENTS (12)
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has insisted that he and his government are doing all they can to solve the crisis in the country.
But the political opposition continued to "whip up" the situation, he added.
The statement was issued in Ukrainian on the presidential website after weeks of often-violent anti-government protests in Kiev and other cities led to a series of government concessions.
It followed an announcement that Mr Yanukovych, 63, was on sick leave.
The presidential website said he had a respiratory illness and a high fever.
The protests began in November after President Yanukovych reversed a decision to sign a trade deal with the European Union, instead favouring a bailout deal with Russia to underpin Ukraine's ailing economy.
Anti-government protesters demanding the president's resignation are still occupying government buildings and manning barricades in freezing temperatures in the centre of the capital.
The past week has seen President Yanukovych accept the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his cabinet, and offer senior jobs to the opposition - offers that were rejected.
The country's parliament has also voted to annul a recently enacted law restricting protests - which appeared to be inflaming the situation - and passed a law giving amnesty to detained protesters, under the condition that occupied buildings were vacated.
"We have fulfilled all the obligations which the authorities took on themselves," President Yanukovych said in the statement.
"However, the opposition continues to whip up the situation calling on people to stand in the cold for the sake of the political ambitions of a few leaders. I think this is wrong."
However, striking a more conciliatory note, he added: "From my side, I will show more understanding to the demands and ambitions of people, taking into account the mistakes that authorities always make... I think that we can together return the life of Ukraine and its people to peace."
Some opposition figures expressed scepticism about Mr Yanukovych's reported illness, saying he might be trying to buy time after being forced into concessions in an attempt to calm unrest on the streets.
"This smacks of a diplomatic illness," Rostislav Pavlenko, a member of boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko's Udar (Punch) party, told Reuters news agency.
"It allows Yanukovych not to sign laws, not to meet the opposition, absent himself from decisions to solve the political crisis."
Mykhailo Chechetov, from Yanukovych's Party of Regions, said the president had told supporters in parliament on Wednesday night that he had come to support the passage of the amnesty bill directly from hospital. "He looked ill," Mr Chechetov added.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, is in Kiev for talks with both sides. On Wednesday she said she was "shocked" by the violence in the capital and across the country in recent weeks that has left several protesters and police officers dead.
She said Ukraine needed "a political process that is engaged in quickly and properly by everyone", adding: "The responsibility is inevitably going to fall on government to do that as quickly as possible."
Moscow, meanwhile, has indicated that it may hold back some of a promised bailout package until a new government is formed.
The loans, totalling $15bn (£9.2bn; 10.9bn euros) and agreed in December , were widely seen as a reward for Kiev's rejection of the EU deal.

The Words "Civil War" have been tossed around. the Situation is rapidly nearing that. The Urkraine is two nations in one set of boarders half leans Russian and has for a millennium half leans European. Russia's worry is that the Ukraine would become the new dividing line between them and NATO.
The Russian relationship with NATO is still oil and water. The Russians viewing it and to some degree quite rightly as a agency designed to stipple their interest. On a number of occasions Putin and other major Russian's have tried to negotiate a reigning in of Nato expansion. normally through the American President. And on occasion the American President has agreed in principle but, Nato is not totaly a American beast and as Time as gone by it has moved more and more Euro centric added to this American politics and the agreements have normally ended up as toilet paper in the Kremlin bathroom.
This makes Russia Worried that NATO is still targeting them and bolsters anti Western movements, and Alines Russia stronger preventing Westernization of the Ukraine. In Civil war expect Russia to arm the East.
The European relationship with the former Soviet satellites varies from state to state but a number of them have stood out . Some for success some for total failure. the western line is frankly confused. you have the EU who offered to intigrate the Ukraine but without the Bailout needed to keep Ukraine functioning. additionally the west is it's self divided some are pushing hard for stepping in but others want out.
President Obama said in his state of the Union on Monday

"In Ukraine, we stand for the principle that all people have the right to express themselves freely and peacefully and to have a say in their country's future."

Yet looking over the Obama Presidency we find a leadership with little interest in involving it's self in actual intervention. but with a outsourcing of military action. that means that the push would be European. and I just don't see Europe intervening in any but a token manor.

30 January 2014 Last updated at 04:35 ET
NYT journalist leaves China over visa delay
A New York Times journalist has left Beijing because Chinese authorities have not granted him a visa.
Austin Ramzy, who had worked in China for six years, applied for a visa in June after joining the NYT from Time magazine.
On Thursday he flew out of Beijing after Chinese authorities said his visa would not be ready in time.
His case is being seen as the latest effort by China to pressure foreign correspondents working in the country.
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) pointed out he was the third NYT journalist not to have been given journalistic accreditation or a resident journalist visa in 18 months.
The New York Times angered Chinese authorities with a story it published in late 2012 on the personal wealth of relatives of former Premier Wen Jiabao. Its website has since been blocked in China.
In a press briefing on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Mr Ramzy had flouted the rules "when he failed to renew his journalist card, and did not properly update his work situation and residence permit".
Mr Qin said authorities had given Mr Ramzy an extra 30 days to sort out his affairs after his visa expired at the end of 2013, and that his NYT request for accreditation was still being processed.
The FCCC said that the suggestion Mr Ramzy had not complied with regulations was "disingenuous", saying "the regulations are unclear and have not been applied to other journalists in similar situations to that of Ramzy".
"In these circumstances it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the authorities are punishing the New York Times for articles it published concerning Premier Wen Jiabao and his family," it said.

30 January 2014 Last updated at 07:44 ET
Japanese cyclist to pay 47m yen ($459,000) over fatal crash
A court in Tokyo has ordered a cyclist to pay nearly half a million US dollars in damages to the family of an elderly woman he knocked down and killed.
The 46-year-old was ordered to pay the 47m yen ($459,000; £278.82m) after he ran into the 75-year-old woman at a pedestrian crossing.
The judge said he wanted the case to serve as an example to other cyclists that bicycles can be deadly weapons.
Tokyo has seen a large increase in the number of cyclists in recent years.
'Inattention to the road'
The court found the cyclist was travelling at between 15 and 25km/h (9 to 15mph) when he knocked down Reiko Azuma, who suffered head injuries and died in hospital five days later, the Kyodo news agency reported.
"Unlike in earlier criminal proceedings, the court gave our case the same treatment as it would a car accident," the son of the victim, Mitsuhiro Azuma, said on Tuesday.
According to the news agency, the cyclist had already been indicted for manslaughter and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, which was suspended for three years.
The judge ruled that the cyclist was not paying attention to the road when the accident happened, and that Mrs Azuma was "in no way at fault".
Accidents involving cyclists have increasingly come under the spotlight in the Japanese capital, with a recent huge increase in the numbers of people using bikes.
Some do it to escape the city's famously overcrowded public transport system, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo.
But the biggest increase came after the 2011 earthquake when hundreds of thousand of commuters were stranded for hours as Tokyo's subway came to a complete halt.
The free-for-all often seen in Tokyo of cyclists speeding through red lights, dodging pedestrians and sometimes texting whilst riding is coming to an end, our correspondent says.

Half a million...

BBC News
US & CANADA
30 January 2014 Last updated at 08:52 ET
Scarlett Johansson quits Oxfam role over SodaStream row
Actress Scarlett Johansson has quit as an ambassador for Oxfam amid a row over her support for an Israeli company that operates in the occupied West Bank.
A spokesman for the actress said she had a "fundamental difference of opinion" with the humanitarian group.
She will remain a brand ambassador for SodaStream, which has a factory in the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim.
Oxfam opposes trade from settlements, considered illegal under international law - something Israel disputes.
About 500,000 Jews currently live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
'Model for peace'
A statement from Ms Johansson's spokesman published on Wednesday announced that the Hollywood star had "respectfully decided to end her ambassador role with Oxfam after eight years", according to the Associated Press.
"She and Oxfam have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. She is very proud of her accomplishments and fundraising efforts during her tenure with Oxfam," it added.
On Thursday, Oxfam issued a statement saying it had accepted Ms Johansson's decision to step down and was grateful for her many contributions.
"While Oxfam respects the independence of our ambassadors, Ms Johansson's role promoting the company SodaStream is incompatible with her role as an Oxfam Global Ambassador," it added.
"Oxfam believes that businesses, such as SodaStream, that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support."
The Avengers star signed up to be a global brand ambassador with SodaStream International Ltd earlier this month, and is due to appear in an advertisement for the firm during Sunday's SuperBowl.
Ms Johansson's statement added: "SodaStream is a company that is not only committed to the environment but to building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbours working alongside each other, receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights."
SodaStream - which makes products that allow people to produce carbonated soft drinks at home - operates one of the hundreds of factories constructed in some 20 Israeli-run industrial zones in the West Bank.
The company's chief executive, Daniel Birnbaum, said his factory was "a model for peace".
"We're very proud to be here and contribute to the co-existence and hopefully the peace in this region," he told Reuters news agency.
However, away from the factory, Reuters quoted one unnamed Palestinian employee as saying "there's a lot of racism" at work.
"Most of the managers are Israeli, and West Bank employees feel they can't ask for pay rises or more benefits because they can be fired and easily replaced," he added.

 

[ManilaBoy45]

Philippine Leader Sounds Alarm on China

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By KEITH BRADSHERFEB. 4, 2014

MANILA — President Benigno S. Aquino III called on Tuesday for nations around the world to do more to support the Philippines in resisting China’s assertive claims to the seas near his country, drawing a comparison to the West’s failure to support Czechoslovakia against Hitler’s demands for Czech land in 1938.Like Czechoslovakia, the Philippines faces demands to surrender territory piecemeal to a much stronger foreign power and needs more robust foreign support for the rule of international law if it is to resist, President Aquino said in a 90-minute interview in the wood-paneled music room of the presidential palace.

“If we say yes to something we believe is wrong now, what guarantee is there that the wrong will not be further exacerbated down the line?” he said. He later added, “At what point do you say, ‘Enough is enough’? Well, the world has to say it — remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War II.”Mr. Aquino’s remarks are among the strongest indications yet of alarm among Asian heads of state about China’s military buildup and territorial ambitions, and the second time in recent weeks that an Asian leader has volunteered a comparison to the prelude to world wars.

 

[broadsword]

Philippine Leader Sounds Alarm on China

When is he going to tie the knot and multiply?

 

[ManilaBoy45]

When is he going to tie the knot and multiply?

Ask Him ...

 

[AssassinsMace]

First Japan calls on the world for help and now the Philippines. Looks like someone is not getting the US to do its dirty work. Not surprising when all the political tea leaves are reading Obama's pivot to Asia is loosing steam. Now the TPP economic angle is in trouble with his own party.

 

[Blitzo]

Lol it isn't everyday you hear a head of state to reference an opponent as nazi Germany.

It is kind of like throwing in the towel in a way, because hitler comparisons are really the bottom of the barrel in the methods of drawing attention and supporting a stance or argument. In some ways, geopolitics are just like anonymous online message boards xD

 

[AssassinsMace]

It's no coincidence that the loudest noisemakers also are the ones that threw all in betting on China to lose. Now that it doesn't look like that will happen there's panic in the air because China doesn't need military action to punish. China can just freeze them out of everything.